aGLIFF, KUTX Host Texas Premiere of JEWEL’S CATCH ONE

The Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival announced aGLIFF’s February monthly screening, in partnership with KUTX 98.9 FM, will feature the Texas premiere of the documentary JEWEL’S CATCH ONE. Directed by C. Fitz, the documentary about the legendary disco hall Catch One in Los Angeles is also a portrait of Jewel Thais-Williams, the remarkable woman who kept Catch One alive against all odds, surviving her own crisis with drugs and alcohol in the 1980s to become an inspiring political activist, philanthropist and healer.

When the disco Catch One opened on the corner of Pico and Crenshaw in 1973, it provided a haven for the black and brown queer community in L.A., who got the cold shoulder at West Hollywood’s clubs. It was a place where “everybody was welcome,” as its indefatigable founder, Jewel explains. And the club ruled for over 40 years, despite frequent police raids, a suspected arson that closed Catch One for two years, and the AIDS crisis that felled so many of its regulars. It became the hip haunt for such celebrities as Madonna, Sandra Bernhard, Sylvester, and Sharon Stone, who was interviewed for the documentary. Paying tribute are such disco divas as Thelma Houston, Evelyn “Champagne” King and Bonnie Pointer.